


Supernovas of All Sound and Light

by grayintogreen



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, all class struggle symbolism is purely incidental, also the lapidot can be read as friendship if you want, canon divergent post-Renuited, i'm not tagging every character that appears in this, it ain't that deep fam, recovering from fascist regimes is fun for the whole family, this is going to go canon divergent so fast, this was a group effort
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 16:59:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15296007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grayintogreen/pseuds/grayintogreen
Summary: A decade is nothing to gems, but it’s long enough for some gem nobility to think they’re getting a raw deal with these new regime changes. Unfortunately for Peridot, she’s the key in a grand scheme to destroy everything she’s worked so hard to obtain.





	Supernovas of All Sound and Light

**White Diamond Colony XGT-Y5**

 

Homeworld was different.

While in many ways things were arguably the same, that sense of oppression and “everything in its proper place” had all but vanished in the last decade. In small ways, gems were starting to take note of their newfound freedom, slowly working their way out of the boxes they had been built into. It would be an arduous process, one that would take centuries to fully come to fruition as the Diamonds were still figuring things out, themselves. It was still hopeful, a promise of a better future…. For every lower tier gem.

The elite didn’t benefit from this at all, and never would. They weren’t pigeonholed. Their job was to rule over and boss their inferiors, and now there were rules in place- their staffs and small courts couldn’t be forced to stay with them, and, of course, most of them were left without Pearls or servants when that law came down. It was unfairly humbling- they hadn’t done anything to deserve this. They hadn’t _asked_ for it. And why bother giving rights to a bunch of gems who had never thought about having them before? All because of that Pink brat, back from the dead, who suddenly convinced Blue and Yellow that _maybe_ things could be different.

Heliodor shifted from one foot to the other, scowling at Emerald who not only still had her Pearl, but had the audacity to bring her to the meeting. They had been invited to Goshenite’s colony on a moon somewhere far from Homeworld proper, which had come as a surprise to both of them- Goshenite was one of the few remaining members of White Diamond’s court and rarely spoke to anyone since “The Incident,” and most assuredly did not speak to her fellow nobles. Heliodor had always suspected that she simply thought she was superior for being one of the oldest gems in existence- as if that mattered! White Diamond’s imprisonment was proof that older didn’t necessarily mean better.

Granted, the “middle children” of the Diamond Authority were certainly making a mess of things, and that was a thought that would have frightened her for how treasonous it was ten years ago, but now it was a scathing, idle thought, and part of her wanted to say it to Yellow Diamond’s face just to see if _her excellence_ could muster up a fair response that spoke to her newfound _mercy_.

“Where _is_ she?” Emerald barked. They had been standing outside the estate for longer than was considered polite for a guest and most of it had been spent in awkward, glowering silence. Pearl aside, Emerald was a hothead and cared more about ships than politics. She was always so _boring_ to talk to. _Oh yes, you have a new cruiser. That’s lovely, dear, but how do you feel about the depletion of resources in the Ruby kindergartens just south of Quadrant 10Z-P?_

“Perhaps she’s forgotten her Pearl’s gone and doesn’t know how to answer her door, herself,” Heliodor shot back, pointedly making eye contact with the black Pearl standing at attention by Emerald’s side. She made eye contact back and it made the yellow-green gem so unsettled, she looked away first. She could feel that damned Pearl’s smugness radiating off her.

Oh how easy it would be rip that black gem out of her eye and crush it in a fist….

“Jealousy doesn’t become you, Heliodor. It’s not my fault you treated none of your court with respect.” Emerald broke up the power fantasy and Heliodor sniffed in indignation, brushing imaginary dust off her yellow gown.

“And just how many of your court made off with your ships? I mean you made it so easy for an _organic_ and a bunch of off-colors to steal your precious-”

Emerald had almost bridged the gap to Heliodor to cut her off violently when the door suddenly opened and Goshenite stepped out, looking like a pale ghost, her wispy robes clinging to her form. She looked frustrated and tired, and it definitely wasn’t because of either of them, though she put on a convincing act of pretending it was. The fact that her chest gem wasn’t quite up to its usual luster proved that some sort of stress had fallen on the noble. “For the stars’ sakes, come in before you shatter each other, though that might make my day better.”

Emerald and Heliodor gave each other stink-eyes and followed the pale gem into the foyer and then into the sitting room where both were shocked to see a tiny blue gem sitting cross-legged on a chair, a droplet-shaped gem settling on her cheek like a forgotten tear. Emerald was struck dumb, but Heliodor found her voice quickly.

“I didn’t realize you had such a fondness for new nobility, Goshenite,” she crowed. “After all, you’re old enough to know the new models just can’t keep up.” And then to the small gem, who hadn’t given her much more than a cursory glance, “Hello, little Aquamarine. Will you be leaving now? Let the Era I gems discuss business?”

Goshenite set her jaw, but said nothing. Aquamarine just heaved a sigh and laced her daintily gloved fingers together. “Charming as ever, Heliodor. Some of us had to actually work to get where we are.”

“I don’t need to hear that from you, you brat!” Heliodor snapped, lifting her arm so that she could get at the gem embedded there and with that, her weapon. Only Emerald grabbing onto her shoulder and Goshenite’s dark glower stopped her from making her second power fantasy of the night a real one.

“Aquamarine has an idea,” Goshenite said, slowly, and the way she ennunciated each word said that she was irritated about said idea. No wonder she looked so tired. An Era II Aquamarine acting as if she knew better than true gem nobility was probably taxing. Heliodor didn’t think she could have indulged this, no matter how convincing the little pebble was. “It’s… a solid idea, but very dangerous.”

Aquamarine kicked her little feet in the chair. “But worth it. I think there’s room for improvement in management around here.”

Heliodor pushed Emerald off of her and the black Pearl glowered darkly at this treatment of her mistress- cheeky little rock! But no more cheeky than the little Aquamarine in front of her. At least the Pearl knew to keep her mouth shut. “And who do you think is going to challenge the Diamonds?”

“There’s only one who can.” Aquamarine smirked. Goshenite looked down at her hands and then balled them into fists, and in that moment Heliodor knew what the answer was, and it made her form waver a bit in terror at the prospect. 

“We’re going to release White Diamond.”

__________________________________________________________________________

**Beach City, Delmarva, Earth**

 

“I don’t _think_ it’s still controversial to use roses, but it’s up to you. I feel like they’d be appropriate, but also a little weird. Stop me if I’m babbling. I’m just really excited.”

Connie Maheswaran peered across the breakfast table with one hand resting against her cheek and her gaze fixed fondly across the table at her fiance, who was currently flipping through a now _thoroughly_ battered wedding scrapbook. She’d told him to make the switch to Pinterest when he started officiating gem weddings, but he’d been horrified by the mere suggestion and she’d just let it lie.

But this was the Big One. _Their_ wedding. The one he’d really been building that scrapbook for (well not specifically her- but Connie, as an avid reader of fantasy, would choose to believe that this was cosmic destiny privately where no one could see her schmaltz it up). “I’m good with roses. It’s not _that_ weird. They’re part of your iconography.” She paused. “ _Our_ iconography.”

“True!” Steven brushed a lock of curling brown hair that had escaped his scrunchie back, and stuck out his tongue as he scribbled in the margins with a gel pen. “Uh… And if I’m stealing your mom’s thunder, just let me know.”

Connie snorted in a very undignified way that made Steven momentarily starstruck. “Oh come on. _My_ mom? She breathed a sigh of relief when she found out you were planning it.”

“I would _hope_ so. She’s not gonna have a choice.” Steven and Connie were so wrapped up in their conversation they didn’t notice the warp had activated and Amethyst had arrived with an armload of weapons. “Hey, guys, I got the party favors.”

Steven jumped up to his feet to take some of the sharp pointy things out of Amethyst’s grasp before she poofed herself, while Connie ran to the other side of the smaller gem, making grabbing motions like an excited child. “Did she get it done? Can I see it?”

“Keep your pants on, Connie. That’s for the honeymoon.” She winked and both Steven and Connie turned bright red, eliciting a groan from Amethyst. “Ugh! You’re both adults now. I can say what I want. You don’t have to get like that. Here.” With Steven taking the majority of the weapons and carrying them to the table, Amethyst was able to grab at the scabbard slung over her back and hand it over. “I didn’t peek, but Bismuth seemed real excited about it.”

Connie grabbed at the scabbard and brought it over to Steven, bouncing a bit on the balls of her feet. She knew how ridiculous it made her look- a political science degree and a bright future in human-alien relations and eventual high-end politics, and she still got excited about weapons. And for the first time, she had one that was truly _hers_. It had felt right to wield Rose’s sword and even when it broke, she’d gritted her teeth and asked Bismuth to remake it like it was. But now… Now she was going to start her new life with Steven with her own blade, made precisely to her specifications.

It wasn’t the giant broadsword she’d once wielded, but a dueling rapier sharp enough to pierce through even the toughest of gem defenses if she ever came across one that wanted to do her harm. The hilt almost brought a tear to her eyes, the guard a chasing circle of vines that protected her hand, ending with a rose on the pommel. The scabbard was dark pink with lighter pink roses and elegant engraving that Bismuth couldn’t have done herself. One of the gems in her commune had to have done it. It simply read, “you’re never just a human- you will and always will be a crystal gem”

That part she hadn’t commissioned, and from the look on Steven’s face, he hadn’t slipped that note to her either. “That’s all Bismuth, broskis,” Amethyst grinned, walking to the fridge to grab a soda. “Turns out Skinny’s got a real knack for engraving. Thin hands.” She wiggled her own fingers, and kicked the fridge door closed now that her soda had been retrieved.

“I should go and thank her right now. It’s so beautiful. I-” Connie was already on her way to the warp pad, flustered with joy that she was going to be wearing such a beautiful item on her wedding day. Steven caught her by the arm to prevent her from moving forward.

“Hey, hey, hey. Wait a minute,” he laughed. “We’ll see her at dinner later.”

“You call it dinner like half the group actually _eats_ anything.” Amethyst called from the couch. “But I guess ‘get-together where we all sit on the beach and chillax’ is a mouthful.”

“And it’s just what we’ve called it for years. I can’t change it now.” It was hard to imagine that they’d reached a point where they could _have_ such a thing. Ever since Yellow and Blue Diamond realized the truth about Pink, things had… shifted. It had started with them allowing Earth to stay as it was, then them sending off-colors to be part of what they perceived as Steven’s odd choice of court, and before anyone knew it Earth had a thriving gem population.

Just… Not all in Beach City. The core group remained there, but Bismuth and Jasper (once she came around) took a lot of the formerly corrupted gems elsewhere to see what Earth really had to offer. Now there were gems everywhere, and once a month they all came back to Beach City to hang out and talk about what’s been going on. This one would be special, too- by the next month, he and Connie would be married and they had to take stock of who all was going to come and who all was going to have to make the warp back to Homeworld to ask the Diamonds.

Honestly, Steven was hoping for RSVP from them, just so he could happily say the Diamonds had come to two Earth weddings and this one they didn’t even have to crash!

Connie sighed, looked from the warp pad, to the sword, and then back at the warp again. “Okay, but can we take a break from planning to try it out?”

The look in her eyes was gleefully pleading and as she had melted just moments ago over his fussing over wedding details, so did he melt from her desire to test out her new weapon. 

In answer, her called over his shoulder, “Amethyst! We’re gonna go train.”

“Have fun you kooky kids, but put a sock on the warp or something if you’re get nasty.”

Steven hurriedly pushed Connie towards the warp, blushing furiously, while Connie cackled in glee, more at his reaction and embarrassment than because of Amethyst’s joke.

____________________________________________________________________________

 

**Gem Homeworld**

 

Peridot paced in front of her regime, eyes narrowed in scrutiny. A decade and several months ago, she would have been just more Peridot in this line-up and not even a high-ranking one! At long last her brilliance was being recognized… Sort of. The look of thinly veiled irritation was present on every Peridot’s face as they fussed with the fingers on their limb enhancements. Not a single one of them had demonstrated the abilities that Peridot had, and she’d, with much trepidation, admitted that perhaps they would be happier if they kept them.

Honestly, learn to adapt. Break free of the shackles of your oppression. Geez.

Oppression was a strong word, however. The Diamonds were dialing back their stranglehold and giving the gems more room to grow and expand. The Peridots, however, weren’t free thinkers, and when Yellow and Steven had discussed trying to change up how kindergartens will function in a new, less toxic to other environments version of Homeworld, they had agreed that the liberated Peridot was the best choice for workshopping with her kin.

So far it wasn’t working.

“The trick,” she was droning on, “is to put back just as much as we take. The kindergartens will always destroy every bit of life that comes in contact with them, but we can reduce the amount of gems we make and plant gardens and trees to off-set the destruction somewhat.”

One of the Peridots, a quiet one with her blonde hair almost constantly in her eyes and her gem on her stomach, raised a limb enhancer-clad hand. Steven called her Hairy when he first met her, but Peridot preferred to use designations. It was more… Professional. “Yes, 6GT?”

“What do the gardens and trees have to do with _us_?”

Peridot heaved a sigh and lifted a hand. Instantly the other Peridot’s limb enhancers went haywire and poked her repeatedly in the face while she yelped a protest. “This isn’t just about _us_ anymore! We’re preserving life, you clods! What part of that are you not getting?”

At that moment, the door opened behind her and one of the Amethysts from the Prime Kindergarten that Peridot had demanded be her bodyguard poked her head in. “Yo, Peridot.” Six nearly identical pairs of eyes looked up at the Amethyst with differing expressions, realizing her mistake, the Amethyst corrected herself, “The short one.”

Five pairs of eyes dropped to their limb enhancements, while one set tried not to twitch. “What?”

“You wanted me to tell you when that Lapis Lazuli got back. Well, she’s back…”

Peridot’s face lit up and she waved a hand, not caring that her magnetic field was still active and she was now poking 6GT in the face again. “Dismissed! And go read about trees or something- oh sorry 6GT.”

And then she was gone, pushing past the Amethyst who shrugged at the remaining Peridots. “Don’t look at me, man. I just make sure her _many enemies_ don’t, like, attack her or something.”

___________________________________________________________________________

It was hard to believe that Lapis had come to _enjoy_ being back on Homeworld. It still wasn’t the world she was separated from five thousand years ago, but it had potential to be better. Most of the time, she went back to her job of terraforming new planets, and came back to little things changing in a way they never did before. She and Peridot had actually made _more_ life to offset all the life Homeworld stole away and some of it went back into Kindergartens, but not all of it. They were working on maintaining a balance.

And, most importantly, Lapis was _free_. She vanished for upwards of weeks at a time, and it made Peridot a little more clingy than she normally was, but Lapis was getting to a point where she actually _enjoyed_ that someone was always that excited to see her. 

She waited in the foyer of Homeworld’s central spire where Peridot conducted most of her meetings with the other Peridots- she liked the convenient warp access and Peridots spent more time in that area anyway, going hither and yon from assignments- and counted the moments. Her Peridot ran like clockwork. She’d be darting down that hall in five… four… three…

Peridot’s tiny feet skidded on the slick floor and she rammed into a wall before righting her trajectory and bounding up to Lapis. Two seconds early- hm. She must not have fallen on her butt this time.

“Lapis!” She jumped into the blue gem’s arms and Lapis swung her around in a swish of skirts and a peal of laughter. “How was the Euthenia Nebula?”

Lapis gave her one more twirl and dropped her on the ground. “Eh. Damp. I think we can probably get some mushrooms or something growing, but the ground is _awful_ for kindergartens. I need to sit down.” 

There was a sitting area near the warp pad and she flopped down, sprawling across the cushions and resting her bare feet on the table. It delighted her that she could be as much of a disaster as she wanted to be on Homeworld now and no one would dare stop her. Like many things in her life now, it was liberating.

Peridot sat, a bit more politely, on her left. “Well, the _other_ Peridots are having trouble with basic concepts, but what else is new?”

“You’re right. It took you a long time to realize how important trees are too.” Lapis opened one eye and smiled wryly. “Is that all that happened?”

“The _Camp Pining Hearts_ spin-off is still trash, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Ugh.” Disappointment colored Lapis’s tone. “I was hoping it’d get better after they introduced that werewolf guy.”

“There was no need to introduce supernatural elements, Lapis! The story was compelling on its own!” Peridot’s rant brought Lapis’s energy level up enough to reach out and ruffle her hair to keep her from going off on another three hour rant about why reboots and spin-offs are the fractures in Earth culture. Simple affection went a long way with Peridot, especially when they went awhile without seeing each other.

“I missed you,” Peridot sighed, her latest rant dying on her tongue.

“Me too,” Lapis responded, closing her eyes again. “I’m kinda ready to go back to the temple and do nothing for awhile.”

“That’s not going to happen.” A snort from the smaller gem. “The wedding is soon.”

Again, Lapis’s eyes snapped open and she sat up so quickly, her knees almost knocked Peridot into the table. “Soon? I thought it was still months away.”

“Weeks,” Peridot corrected. “I’ll be deploying the flowers again, of course. I should really change up my strategy this time… I’ve done it so many times now.”

Steven now officiated the weddings of various gems and Peridot threw flowers, and for the most part weddings in front of the temple were kind of a standard thing in the last ten years. Peridot and Lapis _almost_ grasped the idea of them now. Almost. At least it never got boring, even if the Diamonds didn’t drop in at every reception- last year the Ruby and Pearl that made up Rhodonite and Padparadscha got married in an unusual three-way ceremony and in between the hysterical wedding vows (“I PREDICT YOUR VOWS WILL BE HEARTFELT AND MOVE THE AUDIENCE TO TEARS.”), and Lars’ attempt at a Best Man speech, it had been a memorable occasion. 

And this year it was _Steven_ getting married. The single most important wedding _ever_. And after everything Steven and Connie and the rest of the Crystal Gems had put into Homeworld restoration, it was likely to be the gem-human social event of… well, ever. Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding would have nothing on it.

Honestly, thinking about it made Peridot a little overwhelmed on top of excited. Lapis, on the other hand, was mostly overwhelmed and seemed to be torn between joy at knowing Steven would be marrying the girl he’d been in love with for well over eleven years and having to deal with an unfortunate number of humans and gems she didn’t want to rub elbows with. Maybe she’d spend some time in the temple, instead of trying to schmooze around the reception. What good did it really do her anyway?

“But,” Peridot cut in, “tonight is that… _dinner_ , as Steven calls it. I’m sure he’ll understand if you need to skip it.” Bless her stars, she was getting better at balancing keeping Lapis happy and content with forcing her out of her shell when she needed it. It was Peridot’s influence that encouraged her to start terraforming again, after all. If it were important, then the green gem would have found a gentle reasoning for why she should make an appearance, and if it weren’t, then she’d make an excuse for why she couldn’t for everyone else.

“Nah, I’ll drop in for awhile to see everybody before I see what I missed on TV.” She stretched her arms over her head and her back arched as if she was mantling invisible wings. Maybe a few laps around Homeworld proper before taking the warp back to Earth.... 

“Do _not_ watch last week’s episode without me,” Peridot warned her, expression so grave she might as well be talking about something of great importance and not _Camp Pining Hearts: The Next Generation_. “I have to see your reaction to it _firsthand._ ”

“All right, all right,” Lapis snorted. Now that her mind had been made up about the flight, she stood up. “I wanna see what’s been happening here while I’ve been gone, but then I’ll be ready to go.” She took two steps forward before she realized that Peridot hadn’t moved.

“That was an invitation, you clod,” she called over her shoulder, rolling her eyes. The huffy look on Peridot’s face at _her word_ being used against her got her back to her feet and running to bridge the gap between them. 

“Right… Well, there’s a few things I could show you while we’re in the air. Some of the spires have been restructured, and they’ve opened up one of the libraries. Can you _believe_ how many archives were just _closed off_ after Era I?”

“I can, yeah,” was Lapis’s dry response, but despite the fact that she had many, many opinions on how the Diamonds kept so many details about the war a closely guarded secret and indoctrinated new gems (like Peridot) into something based on lies and obfusciation, she was learning to breathe and accept that things _were_ changing, and that she could kick up a fuss all she wanted, but the past wasn’t going to go away and the future wasn’t going to bend for a person who couldn’t harness their sorrow and use it to push forward. She would build, she would run free, and she would finally, _finally_ find peace. In the open spaces, she had all of those things.

In the quiet moments, bereft of distraction and tasks, she suffered a little. That had to be what indoctrinated gems felt all the time- the feeling of peace that came with having a niche and filling it, and the restlessness that came when you weren’t doing your job. Perhaps she’d just been so long without one, she’d grown addicted to having a place in the world and the quiet moments were when the fear that she’d lose it again crept in.

But… She always had Peridot. And Steven- and even Connie, on some level. There were even other gems she’d come to be on friendly terms with, though she’d hardly call them her friends. She’d always be too picky about _that_ , but she was trying and that was all Steven and Peridot ever asked of her.

She’d gotten so lost in thought that she hadn’t noticed that Peridot had kept going on about the library and what she’d found there without any further input and Lapis found she was unable to find a recognizable thread in the smaller gem’s current tirade against the Cerussite archivists to whatever she was talking about before to fill in the gaps she missed. Luckily, she was saved from having to acknowledge zoning out at all by another Peridot catching them just as they were leaving the central spire.

“5XG, we just… have a few more things to go over with you.” The Peridot, whom Lapis had never bothered to learn the designation of, because she never learned the designation of _any_ of the other Peridots. They were weirdly interchangeable and had many of the same traits, anyway. Even now, she could tell by the disgruntled noises that this one had drawn the short straw to bring back _her_ Peridot.

Her Peridot. Huh. That might need some thinking on later. 

Well, Peridot- hers or otherwise- rolled her eyes, put out by the request, but also relishing the attention. Being wanted and needed was an addiction that the little gem would probably never grow out of. “Fine.” And then, with more gentleness, she addressed Lapis, “...I’ll meet you at the temple later?”

“Sure.” Lapis let her wings out, and stepped off the first stair with reckless abandon, catching herself before she tumbled to her doom. The stairs to the spire were a pain if you couldn’t fly, and Lapis enjoyed rubbing it in that she didn’t have to worry about going up or down. “Just don’t be late or I’ll watch that episode without you.”

She took off flying, and laughed to herself as she heard Peridot, in a blind rage, screaming, “DON’T YOU DARE, LAPIS LAZULI.”

It was good to be back.

____________________________________________________________________________

White Diamond’s ship was a monolith, left just outside of the major Homeworld cityscape, but towering, nevertheless, over everything. Gems used to say that no matter where you went on Homeworld Proper, you could still see the ship.

It looked like her, Goshenite thought as she looked upon it for the first time in millenniums, stepping out of Emerald’s ship. Heliodor and Aquamarine flanked her as she began to walk towards the looming structure like a gem with no control over her physical form. She never bothered with such a trivial thing like _sleeping_ , so one couldn’t say she ever had nightmares, but she did have horrific waking visions of seeing her Diamond again, knowing what role she played in her downfall, knowing that White likely knew she was to blame as well.

And she was just going to walk into the ship where she’d been sealed away for thousands of years and wake her up _personally_ as if that would make it easier, as if that would make the Diamond Above All Diamonds inclined to mercy. Her only solace was that even if White’s vengeance was swift, she’ll have started something that no one else could do. She would have brought Homeworld back to rights.

Or at least that was how Aquamarine spun it when she convinced her. Funny how she could believe that it was her choice when that little Era II brat had whispered such things in her ear until she could no longer argue against it.

No matter. She had come too far for to have doubts now

No one guarded the ship because no one could _enter_ it. It only answered to a member of White’s Court since it had been sealed and Goshenite was the only one left. Yellow and Blue never believed she’d turn around and release the Diamond she’d betrayed. There were no precautions taken.

Aquamarine knew this. That’s how she knew it would work.

Emerald finally joined the three gems, having left her Pearl with the ship. They were coming up on the pure white and metallic torso that made up the bottom half of White’s ship. In an ideal world where the other ships were still functional, it would have hooked to Yellow and Blue’s arm ships and Pink’s leg ship to form something the Diamonds probably found intimidating, but Goshenite had always found _silly_ \- to herself anyway.

“Well?” Emerald barked, waiting for something to happen. Impatient as always- so unbecoming of a noble. Goshenite passed her solid white gaze over to the taller gem to give her a look of purest disdain and then reached out to place her hand on an invisible control panel.

A door, with much straining at the ground in which it was half buried in, yanked itself halfway open before giving up the fight entirely. Aquamarine bypassed Goshenite and the others, flitting easily through the crack while the other nobles had to awkwardly shuffle through on their own terms. The little gem did nothing to hide her amused laughter, as they stumbled into the main chamber of the ship, having not agreed to an order and thus ended up pushing on another through.

“You all look dreadfully silly- I can’t help but laugh,” she chuckled. She turned quickly, preparing to take point, despite that being Goshenite’s job, and nearly ran headlong into a yellow bubble sporting a white stone marked with blackish veins. She spiraled back away with an undignified yelp that set Emerald and Heliodor snickering. 

“Emerald, please….” Goshenite murmured, lacking patience. Of the four of them, only Emerald had a gem placement that worked well for light, and still snickering, she obliged the request, letting the light linger a little too long on Aquamarine’s disgruntled face before it began to circle the upper levels of the ship as the green gem turned in circles. Above them dozens of bubbles containing gems of the same type as Aquamarine had nearly run into were floating undisturbed, like haunting baubles.

“Howlite,” Heliodor said, her voice breathy with awe. “I thought Yellow and Blue shattered them all.”

“If they didn’t shatter her, they weren’t going to shatter her beloved soldiers,” Goshenite explained. She didn’t dare look at the bubbles, and, instead, kept walking straight towards the next wall to open up the rest of the ship. “Her Moonstones were kept with her.”

“Moonstones,” Emerald whistled. “I haven’t heard of them in ages. They stopped being useful when we invented those machines to do the hunting and shattering for us. Not that you’d know anything about that, huh, Aquamarine?”

The little fairy of a gem scowled even darker. “They were inquisitors. I’m not _daft_. They were much more reliable than machines, _weren’t they_ , Emerald?”

Realizing the can of worms she’d opened, Emerald grit her teeth and balled a hand into a fist. “Don’t-”

“After all, an _Inquisitor_ wouldn’t have allowed you to lose your ship to an organic and a group of off-colors.”

Emerald lunged full force at Aquamarine just as all of the lights suddenly came on and the ship began to hum to life, distracting her from the pursuit of her quarry. The sight of the bubbles hanging in stasis above them wasn’t made less unsettling by the lights being on- if anything it just solidified how _many_ there were. Aquamarine bobbed out of Emerald’s reach and went to join an even more frustrated Goshenite as she began to take her leave through the ship again, leaving the other two nobles to either follow or remain with the Howlites.

“That little _brat_ thinks she’s so clever,” Emerald scowled through gritted teeth.

Heliodor, equally annoyed, but also more than happy to prove her superiority to Emerald’s hotheaded nature, only tsked, “Temper, dear.”

And then she skipped forward just before Emerald tried to take a swing at her.

___________________________________________________________________________

 

 _The ship hadn’t changed a bit since that day_ , Goshenite thought to herself as she led the three other nobles further and further up the stairs to the command center at the top of the torso-shaped craft. Things that were broken when the onslaught occurred remained that way, forcing the gems to step over the pieces while Aquamarine hovered in the air, undeterred. At one point, Heliodor stepped on something that crunched unpleasantly underfoot and she dared to look down, believing it to be broken glass or a fragile bit of the ship.

It was the remains of a white pearl, crushed into dust save for one last broken shell that Heliodor had cleaved in half with her boot. She took a step back and gasped, eliciting looks from the rest of her group.

It took a minute for Heliodor to find her voice. “Her Pearl…?”

“Pearls,” Goshenite corrected, her voice echoing as she called back, the sound adding an even more eerie atmosphere to the humming of long abandoned machinery trying to remember how to work properly again. “She had seven of them. They didn’t make it- there was no point in bubbling them and they couldn’t be harvested, so…”

She didn’t finish the rest of the sentence- or she did and she’d turned a corner with Emerald and Aquamarine following close behind her, leaving Heliodor to stare at the floor and count the broken, smashed shells that used to be Pearls. They were so crushed and ground into the floor that it was hard to tell how many there were, and while it was odd for a noble to be that broken up about a dead Pearl, it was just… awful to see them left there like that. Yellow and Blue claimed they were reformed gems who wanted to make a better Homeworld- well, where was that better Homeworld when they had cornered White Diamond in her own ship and assaulted and shattered her entire court?

Heliodor grimaced and picked up the pace, stepping over the piles of Pearl dust, no longer wanting to linger in this moment. She had to stay focused, make herself present, make sure that White Diamond knew that she (and the other three, of course) were responsible for her return. The stairs continued upwards and upwards to dizzying heights until she finally caught up to Goshenite, Emerald, and Aquamarine standing at the door to ship’s main control room.

Goshenite was stalling, apparently, and judging by the looks Emerald and Aquamarine were giving her, she was given as the excuse. She merely scowled back at them. “Well, Goshenite? Is this it?”

Goshenite’s shoulders tensed and she lifted her head to the ceiling. “It is, indeed,” she said, with a haunting note that spoke of finality and crossing a threshold that there was no going back from. Again, she pressed her hand onto a panel, and, again, the wall opened up, leading them onto the main deck.

The command center was located in the ship’s “head.” The windows were blacked out even with the dim light and the slowly powering up systems. More bubbles dotted the ceiling, holding opalescent white gems- the Moonstones that Goshenite mentioned- and there looming large above all else… White Diamond herself.

Yellow must have done it, in the end. Most of the Moonstones were encased in dark blue bubbles, but White, herself, was tinted yellow to the point where it made her and the other Matriarch’s gem’s indistinguishable. For Goshenite, that must be disgusting- to see her Diamond’s form so clearly tainted by Yellow’s, the one who destabilized and trapped her.

Heliodor couldn’t blame her. Her rage at Yellow Diamond, alone, was enough to chip her gem, and that was for purely unrelated, _petty_ reasons. Even if Goshenite had turned on White, she probably still felt _something_ for her as she was. Heliodor wouldn’t feel nearly this betrayed by her Diamond if she hadn’t loved her once. Maybe Goshenite’s betrayal had come from a place of love, a love that spoke of this being for their own good.

The true love of Homeworld- we do what’s best for gemkind, not for the individual. And so what if they were angry because they were being placed on the same level as inferior gems? It was just as much because this new system couldn’t hold as it was a loss of their station and power. No… No one could claim this was selfish. They were doing it to protect Homeworld. They were going to make Blue and Yellow Diamond understand that choosing Pink’s idle fantasies over the structure that White Diamond _built_ was foolhardy.

White Diamond would sort this out.

Once she was released.

Moments passed in stunned silence as the four gems stood and stared up at the large bubble looming above them. Any one of them could have thrown a weapon and pierced it, but none of them stepped up until finally Emerald shoved Goshenite forward.

“Well, go on. Do it.”

“Me?” Goshenite whirled, pressing a long fingered hand into Emerald’s torso. She’d been so gentle and demure- an elegant statuesque gem befitting her station as one of White Diamond’s noble class- and now she was anxious and, dare Heliodor say it? _Angry_. “I brought you all this far. One of you can wake her.”

“ _I_ brought the ship, Emerald thrust her chest out so that the skinnier gem had to step back or avoid being bowled over. “That was _my_ contribution to the mission.” Two sets of gem eyes immediately fell to Heliodor, who balked at this sudden shift in focus.

“I only came because _you_ insisted, Emerald.”

“Your Diamond bubbled her,” Emerald snapped back. “It might respond to you better.”

“That’s not how _bubbling_ works, you idiot, and if you removed your head from your ships once and awhile, you’d-”

There was a sudden, barely audible pop that pulled the focus of the three gem nobles away from one another and up to where White Diamond was previously bubbled. Aquamarine, who had been uncharacteristically silent during this time was hovering just above the slowly lowering gem, her wand held up like a conductor’s baton. “Oops,” she cooed. 

There was nothing to do about it now. Heliodor, Emerald, and Goshenite grabbed one another as the plan that Aquamarine had gathered them all here for (Heliodor, herself, had almost forgotten it wasn’t their idea, to begin with) began to form before their eyes. The process was quick- White Diamond’s ethereal white form bursting free from the liberated diamond in a halo of pure energy. One moment, the lost matriarch was bubbled as she’d been for thousands of years, and in the next… She was looming over them, blinking pale eyes that seemed almost snowblind as she looked around at her ship, her bubbled Moonstones, and then finally at the four gems before her.

“How long has it been?” She murmured, her voice deep and resonant and seeming to echo off the walls. Goshenite pushed herself away from Emerald and Heliodor and stepped forward.

“Over five thousand years, My Diamond.” She did the salute as if she had done it every day just like that for the past five thousand years since her Diamond was sealed away, but when White’s void-like eyes fell on her, it was not with the bare minimum affection of a Diamond feeling proud of one of her own.

It was disgust.

“You’re that Goshenite, aren’t you?” No other gem seemed to exist in the room besides Goshenite and White Diamond. Their gazes were locked and, despite herself, Heliodor gripped Emerald’s arm. “I wondered how Yellow and Blue got through my defenses so quickly, but it was you, wasn’t it?”

“I have realized my mistake, My Diamond,” Goshenite said, her voice level in a way that was enviable. Were it Heliodor, she’d have been begging- all talk and no substance as Emerald would say, but she could go shatter herself. There was a time when no one could stand up to an enraged Diamond and live to tell the tale, and for all that Heliodor was committing treason, she still believed in those days, because that system _worked_. “Homeworld is in jeopardy. We _need_ you.”

White Diamond’s expression became contemptuous and she leaned down to get a better look at the gems before her, though her eyes remained on Goshenite. “It most certainly is in jeopardy if they let gems like you roam free, traitor.”

Goshenite didn’t have time to scream. White Diamond’s hand closed around her form, dissipating it quickly. There was half a second worth of a pause and the next sound was a sickening crack as White Diamond shattered her into pieces and dropped them on the floor at their feet, as if she was nothing.

Heliodor remembered the dead Pearls on the way up to the command center. Goshenite’s shards were silver-white and dropped as carelessly as White Diamond’s fleeing servants’ shards had been. How fleeting is gem life to a Diamond? Do any of them care? Is it all just _folly_ to them? Suddenly her faith in the system wavered, causing a contradictory mess of feelings she couldn’t bottle up, and Heliodor, emboldened by watching a gem who had just come here to save Homeworld from itself be crushed, stepped up.

“Why? She’s more than made up for it! She could have been a spy or a source of information. You didn’t have to-”

Like Goshenite before her, she was cut off, but not by being crushed. White Diamond merely reached over and brushed a long, thin finger- as long as Heliodor’s entire body- over her. “There is something broken in Homeworld, and it’s that so many of you have the gall to speak to me like this.”

The feeling came on suddenly, like something eating away at her mind. Her form spasmed, then shifted, and then began to elongate. Heliodor threw herself onto the ground, becoming a twitching, writhing yellow-bodied insectoid mass while Emerald tried to bite back a frightened scream. Heliodor snapped her mandibles once in Emerald’s direction as they took form, a lack of recognition on her empty, buglike features, and then she skittered away through the open door and into the ship proper. The sound of her shrieking and skittering echoed for an agonizingly long moment, and then silence, broken by Emerald finally releasing a choked gasp.

White Diamond straightened up, staring at the remaining gems as if she expected the pair of them to pick their fates. Neither said anything- Aquamarine was radiating a quiet sort of smugness while Emerald looked as if she might dissipate her form at any moment. She managed one look at the smaller gem, and then, suddenly, she knew why Aquamarine had stayed so quiet. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that White Diamond would emerge angry, and she’d made sure there were other gem nobles here to take the heat. She was new, unrecognizable, while the other nobles could be placed and punished to satiate the Diamond’s need for quick revenge.

And, in that moment, Emerald realized she’d underestimated that bratty little gem, and she could do nothing about it now. 

“If you’ve finished insulting me with your excuses and your explanations, as if I care to hear any of it from any of you….” White Diamond turned around, pressing her hand against the panel and bringing up the view of Homeworld laid out before the ship. For the first time, there was almost a hint of relief in the pale eyes of White Diamond. She was seeing her Homeworld for the first time in thousands of years, after all. “I would like so much to speak to Yellow and Blue.”

**Author's Note:**

> First chapter set-up is the worst. Tell your friends.


End file.
